At Your Service

---Shares

October 18, 1996

"Products tend to be more standardized than services,"
says Rick Crandall, author of Marketing Your Services: For
People Who Hate to Sell (Select Press). "With a product,
you're pretty much selling the same thing, whereas with a
service, the [selling process] is customized almost every time.
Services are intangible--people can't always see what
they're getting." Fortunately, there are tangible steps to
help you sell your service.

1. Make your service more palpable. Offering a package
deal gives your service some semblance of a product. For example,
providing legal advice for a year at a set fee may be more
desirable to customers who are scared away by the prospect of
open-ended billing.

2. Network in unique places. Don't rule out traffic
school, bowling leagues, baseball games and other nonbusiness
events as chances to share your story. Leisure activities provide a
natural setting for networking and encourage relationship-building
more often than the stiff introductions typical of most networking
events.

3. Clip articles featuring your business or clients. Most
of the value of publicity comes long after a news article is
published. You may get several calls when the article actually
runs, but you'll get many more if you distribute reprints
later.

4. Do marketing test runs. Before you send out a mailing,
run it by a few people. Before you commit to a Yellow Pages ad,
test it on a flier. Before you go crazy with any ad, track your
marketing results. For example, if you place ads in two different
newspapers and find that one pulls 90 percent of the total
response, you can cut your expenses while getting a similar
response.

5. Have a system. Service providers in particular often
get caught up in their work and neglect to market. It's a
vicious circle: Because they don't market systematically, they
see spotty results, so they don't market systematically. Set up
a routine in which you send out letters, make calls or write ad
headlines for an hour every morning or one day a week.

6. Write a letter to the editor. This is easy to do and
provides prime exposure in the publications that your target
audience reads.

7. When pitching publications, look for unusual
photographs. Many times, media that cover service businesses
are stuck with stale, sitting-at-the-desk photos reporters and
photo editors have seen thousands of times. Seek something
photogenic about your business, and strive for novel photos to
distinguish you from the crowd.

8. Create a handout of handy tips. A landscaper could
compile 10 ways to prepare a lawn for fall; a lawyer might list 10
ways to avoid going to court. Use these tips in seminars,
brochures, ads or press releases. The tips establish your
expertise; giving them away creates gratitude in potential
customers.

9. Give an award to a member of your community. A
landscaper could present awards for the best lawns in the
neighborhood; an environmental consultant could present an award
for the most environmentally sound business.

10. Hold seminars. Get together with other entrepreneurs
whose services complement yours and market a series of seminars. A
bonus to the group method: If you're not used to giving
speeches, sharing the stage could calm your nerves.

11. Collect testimonials. People respond to testimonials
from others in their industry or someone in their particular
circumstance. Once you know a prospect's needs, you can whip
out your file and share the testimonial that best mirrors his or
her need.